• About
  • Contact
  • Staff
  • Home
  • Essays
  • Forum
  • Podcasts
  • Book Reviews
  • Liberty Classics

Kevin Gutzman Subscribe

Kevin R. C. Gutzman is professor of history at Western Connecticut State University. He is the author of Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary; James Madison and the Making of America; and Virginia’s American Revolution: From Dominion to Republic, 1776-1840.

October 2, 2019|1619 Project, John Rolfe, Slavery

Reclaiming 1619

by Kevin Gutzman|

"Landing Negroes at Jamestown from Dutch man-of-war, 1619" an illustration in Harper's Monthly Magazine, v. 102, 1901 Jan., p. 172. Image: Everett Historical Photos / Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-53345.
A look at the complexities of Virginia in 1619 suggests that assigning blame for slavery is a complex business.

May 28, 2019|America Compromised, Boss Tweed, Kirsten Gillibrand, Lawrence Lessig

Cleansing Our Institutions the Lessig Way

by Kevin Gutzman|

(image: Dirk Ercken, shutterstock.com)
Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig posits that several sectors of American society are corrupt, and offers highly impractical remedies.

March 13, 2019|

McCulloch: A “Rule of Construction” Too “Broad and Pliant”

by Kevin Gutzman|

In response to: The Destructive Legacy of McCulloch v. Maryland

Chief Justice John Marshall
James Madison’s critique of Marshall’s opinion in McCulloch remains valid.

More Responses

Would that John Marshall’s Great Opinion Were Cited Oftener Today

by Matthew J. Franck

Unlike our latter-day advocates of judicial engagement, Marshall saw that the separation of powers embodied principled limits on the judge’s role.

Beveridge Loved It; Roane Hated It; Few Today Understand McCulloch Properly

by Kevin Walsh

Blame the later interpreters, not John Marshall, for the misuse of this circumspect opinion.

Marshall Takes on the Virginia Anti-Federalists

by Michael M. Uhlmann

Those who rejected the very premises of the 1787 Constitution, as John Marshall understood them, had to be faced down.

Nelson Lund Replies to His McCulloch Critics

by Nelson Lund

Constitutional law has to be approached as law, not as political philosophy.

February 25, 2019|Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Antifederalists, Barry Goldwater, Federalist Papers, Federalists, Legacies of Losing in American Politics, Ronald Reagan

The Constitutional “Moments” You Can Believe In

by Kevin Gutzman|

Did the apparent losers—Anti-Federalists, Andrew Johnson, and Barry Goldwater—impede the full development of our constitutional tradition?

January 28, 2019|James Madison, Jefferson and the Virginians, Patrick Henry, Peter S. Onuf, Thomas Jefferson

Peter Onuf’s Jefferson

by Kevin Gutzman|

A great historian shows us how much there is still to learn about the nation’s third President.

September 8, 2017|

Give Me Madison, Please!

by Kevin Gutzman|

In response to: The Liquidation of Meaning: Madisonian Originalism for the Living Generation

Gordon Lloyd and Steve Ealy provide considerable material to ponder. The gist of their argument seems to be that rather than a Progressive political culture centered on quadrennial presidential elections and a governmental system featuring a considerable policy-making authority for both the president and the Supreme Court, we ought to prefer a “Madisonian” system. While sympathetic toward, and indeed enthusiastic for, their criticisms of our current political culture, I demur from their ascription of their views to James Madison. Their Madison is not Madison as I understand him, and I prefer the real thing. Consider the Lloyd/Ealy account of Madison’s response…

Read More

More Responses

Unsettling Thoughts on Liquidation

by James Stoner

It is subtle, or at least ironic, to use a term—“liquidate”—that has lost its original meaning to initiate a discussion of constitutional interpretation.  Today the word still has a legal usage, referring to the payment and settlement of debts.  The OED finds that meaning in English publications at the time that Madison and Hamilton employed…

Read More

Liquidation and the Problem of Constitutional Settlement

by Greg Weiner

Gordon Lloyd and Steve Ealy make a compelling case for liquidation, what they call “Originalism for the Living Generation,” as the most Madisonian means of settling constitutional meaning. Grounded as it is in Madisonian text and example, from The Federalist to the bank veto, the superb account Lloyd and Ealy offer is difficult to assail…

Read More

July 13, 2017|Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty, John Boles, Joseph Ellis, Merrill Peterson, Sally Hemings, Secession, Slavery, Thomas Jefferson

Making Jefferson Safe for the Historians        

by Kevin Gutzman|

Washington, DC - Jefferson Memorial

Rice University’s John Boles was for many years (1983-2013) editor of The Journal of Southern History, which after The Journal of American History is the most-cited scholarly journal in the field of American history. In that position, he had substantial influence on, besides being substantially influenced by, the shape of the field today. Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty comes as a kind of valedictory.  As in his earlier work, Boles is self-consciously guided in writing it by recent developments in academic historiography. Contemporary politics make themselves felt in his story of the Master of Monticello, too. A full one-volume account has long…

Read More

April 18, 2017|Federalism, Freedom of Religion, Kevin Gutzman, Slavery, Thomas Jefferson - Revolutionary, University of Virginia, Wall of Separation

The Radical Jefferson: A Conversation with Kevin Gutzman

by Kevin Gutzman|

In this edition of Liberty Law Talk historian Kevin Gutzman discusses his latest book, Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary. We focus on Jefferson's account of federalism, conscience rights, education, and race.

January 13, 2013|Alexander Hamilton, Chisholm v. Georgia, Constitutional Amendment, Edmund Randolph, Framed, George Washington, Preamble to the Constitution

Sanford Levinson’s New Constitutional Settlement

by Kevin Gutzman|

Sanford Levinson here sets himself the task of examining not what he calls the “Constitution of Conversation,” but what he terms the “Constitution of Settlement.”  He notes that many people devote barrels of ink to proposing meanings that they hope to see imputed to a few clauses of the Constitution:  the Commerce Clause, the Necessary and Proper Clause, the General Welfare Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Due Process Clauses.  These clauses and a few others make up Levinson’s “Constitution of Conversation.” On the other hand, virtually no attention is paid to clauses such as the Inauguration Clause or the…

Read More

June 29, 2012|Cato, Cicero, Declaration of Independence, Demosthenes, Thomas Jefferson

Breaking the Chains of Ignorance and Despotism

by Kevin Gutzman|

Political rhetoric does more than simply convey partisan messages.  It can also provide insight into changing conceptions of the relationship between the citizen and government, the ruled and the rulers.

So, for example, in its 1776 Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress did not just lay out its case for seceding from the British Empire.  Rather, it claimed that God had endowed men with certain inalienable rights, famously including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  It also envisioned the citizenry as ultimately in a position of mastery over its government.  When government ceased to serve their purposes, Congress claimed, “It is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Read More

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

Read More

The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

Read More

Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

Read More

James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

Read More

Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

Read More

Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

Read More

Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

Read More

America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

Read More

Recent Posts

  • The Just Restraint of the Vicious

    For some contemporary criminal justice reformers, devotion to ideology leads to illogical conclusions about human nature and character change.
    by Gerard T. Mundy

  • Too Immature to be Punished?

    When I look back on my own life, I think I knew by the age of ten that one should not strangle old ladies in their beds.
    by Theodore Dalrymple

  • A Badge of Discrimination

    The British National Health Service has spoken: Wear the badge or declare yourself to be a bigot.
    by Theodore Dalrymple

  • A Judicial Takeover of Asylum Policy?

    Thuraissigiam threatens to make both the law and the facts in every petition for asylum—and there are thousands of them—a matter for the courts.
    by Thomas Ascik

  • The Environmental Uncertainty Principle

    By engaging in such flagrant projection, the Times has highlighted once again the problem with groupthink in the climate discussion.
    by Paul Schwennesen

Blogroll

  • Acton PowerBlog
  • Cafe Hayek
  • Cato@Liberty
  • Claremont
  • Congress Shall Make No Law
  • EconLog
  • Fed Soc Blog
  • First Things
  • Hoover
  • ISI First Principles Journal
  • Legal Theory Blog
  • Marginal Revolution
  • Pacific Legal Liberty Blog
  • Point of Law
  • Power Line
  • Professor Bainbridge
  • Ricochet
  • Right Reason
  • Spengler
  • The American
  • The Beacon Blog
  • The Foundry
  • The Originalism Blog
  • The Public Discourse
  • University Bookman
  • Via Meadia
  • Volokh

Archives

  • All Posts & Publications
  • Book Reviews
  • Liberty Forum
  • Liberty Law Blog
  • Liberty Law Talk

About

Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.
  • Home
  • About
  • Staff
  • Contact
  • Archive

© 2021 Liberty Fund, Inc.

This site uses local and third-party cookies to analyze traffic. If you want to know more, click here.
By closing this banner or clicking any link in this page, you agree with this practice.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Necessary Always Enabled

Subscribe
Get Law and Liberty's latest content delivered to you daily
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Close